mbhatti311 wrote:
To keep it brief, i work a 4-10 schedule (4 days, 10 hours) as an engineer at a chemical plant 60 miles from my house. My employer is very flexible and i can basically work any time as long as its 40 hrs/week; my employer has also agreed I can work 30-35 hours a week - so regardless if this is needed, i will take full advantage of it!
Below is my proposed work/study schedules; which should i choose?
A) WORK: Monday - Wednesday, 11 hrs/day (33 hrs/week) + 2 hr drive time each day.
STUDY: Thursday-Sunday (free to study all day) + sneak in studying at work + ManhattenPrep In Person (3-4hrs)
B) WORK: Monday - Thursday, 8 hrs/day (32 hrs/week) + 2 hours drive time each day.
STUDY: Monday - Thursday, 2 hrs in the evenings + Friday - Sunday (free to study all day) + ManhattenPrep In Person (3-4hrs)
Essentially, I will get the same number of hours of study time with either schedule; the only difference is how the study time is spread out.
With schedule A) I basically go HAM at work for only 3 days and have no life. But then can focus 4 days well on GMAT and also have time to get cardio, have a life, etc. An added benefit is i gain an extra 2 hours of my life because I will have to drive one day less to work (2 hour drive round trip).
With schedule B) I will still be working hard for 4 days, but my i will be able to study pretty much everyday, just less on weekdays.
TLDR;
Is it better to study GMAT a little bit every day? or take a 3 day gap every week (for long work hours) and then be off for 4 days and be able to focus 100% on GMAT for those 4 days?
According to the GMAT Pill philosophy, I would recommend starting off with a B) - type study schedule and then transitioning to an all-in study schedule with some days of rest.
Of course, you should spread this out over time - ideally 2-3 months.
Start off studying sort of "on-the-side" -- then once you commit to kicking things into high-gear -- then it's nothing but studying. Live, breath, and sleep the GMAT for full entire days. And then rest -- and then go at it again - then rest. Then review - and kickass on the exam.
https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... study-planWe also recommend a
"Divide and Conquer" approach first.
That is -
focus on specific sections - like Sentence Correction. Dedicate an entire day - heck, dedicate multiple consecutive days dedicated ONLY to sentence correction.
For example: tomorrow is
"Sentence Correction Day" - and don't move on until you feel you've made a significant improvement and have results to show.
If you operate with that kind of work ethic - and apply that process to RC, RC, PS, DS, etc. -- then you will have individually made good progress in each section.
Then from there, it's about
mixing and matching different verbal and quant questions - just as you would see them on the actual test. So take practice tests to simulate this mental switch between different question types under time pressure.
For practice, we recommend the practice tests from mba.com as was from supplemental resources such as this one from GMAT Pill:
https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... ctice-testTo learn more about GMAT Pill - read our stories at
https://www.gmatpill.com/testimonials